McPhillips laments cup loss

Academy coach disappointed to see Rovers lose 3-1 to Leicester City in the FA Youth Cup.

Under-18s coach Terry McPhillips was proud of the way his side performed despite the 3-1 loss to Leicester City in the FA Youth Cup at Ewood Park on Tuesday evening.

After going all the way to the final last season, it was always going to be a huge ask this season, and against a strong Leicester outfit the young Rovers suffered a third round loss.

"I'm mega disappointed, as all the lads are," McPhillips told Rovers Player after the game.

"We did well last year and this is their FA Cup, but that is football, we were beaten by the better side tonight.

"They were strong, well organised, with good players, two good forwards and they were really hard to get past.

"We knew they were going to be big, we'd seen that in our reports and in the DVDs."

Rovers took the lead inside 20 minutes when Brice Wassi drilled home, but Leicester levelled just past the half time and in the second half exerted their dominance to score two further goals to put the tie beyond Rovers.

"It is disappointing after going 1-0 up. We gave away a free-kick leading to the first goal and we didn't defend that well enough.

"At half-time it was probably even but we didn't start the second half so well, made some mistakes and they pounced on them.

"After that I thought our lads were brilliant with their attitude, application and desire, but we just lacked that bit of quality that they had.

"Fair play to Leicester, they've got some really good players, players that have been around their first team, but we're gutted, we worked hard all week and it would have been nice to go into January in the hat for the next round but it wasn't to be."

At half-time it was probably even but we didn't start the second half so well, made some mistakes and they pounced on them.

Terry McPhillips

11 Dec 2012

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